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I don’t know SD. I don’t think I have an obligation to others, but I do believe I am supposed to love my neighbor. How I do that or whether I do that at all is completely at the mercy of my own free agency and whim. I don’t feel obligated to minister to those I am assigned to minister to, I will minister to whomever I like to, member or not. I pay tithing and that MUCH more than covers the heat/AC/electricity for the two hours a week I’m there and the couple slices of ham at the Christmas party. I’m not bragging here, but it could actually cover the entire ward for the entire year and all the parties, activities, etc. – and I don’t even pay on anywhere near gross. IOW, what I pay in tithing alone is more than our ward gets back in activity funding and more than it costs to heat and air condition the building and have lights (I know this because I have seen the bills).
Every time I have high expectations of the church (and most of the time when I have low expectations, which is almost always) I am disappointed. I give them my money and my time and effort and I don’t really expect anything in return. Like you, I don’t express my cynicism openly and try my best to do no harm. I can live and be happy without the church and I have proven it – and they can live without me and they have proven it.
They owe me nothing because I expect nothing, and I owe them way less than what I pay them.
Allow me to split the difference. If an individual wishes to remain a member of the tribe in good standing there are certain minimum contributions that can be expected.
Some members give far more in contributions than could reasonably be expected of volunteers.
The church doctrine, culture, and organization is set up to describe these contributions as something that the members owe to God through his church.
I think much good is found in contributing a reasonable and sustainable amount for your circumstances and not feeling guilty about respectfully saying “no” to the rest.
DJ’s post reminds me of a birthday card I once saw….the cover said “Blessed are they who expect nothing on their birthday”
Then when you open the card it says “For they shall not be disappointed”.
It has double meaning. One one hand, that expecting nothing prevents disappointment because there are no expectations to be met.
On the other hand, a sort of tongue in cheek comment that if you expect nothing, you are blessed in getting your expectation met — you get nothing just like you expected.
I choose the former interpretation.
SilentDawning wrote:
DJ’s post reminds me of a birthday card I once saw….the cover said“Blessed are they who expect nothing on their birthday”
Then when you open the card it says “For they shall not be disappointed”.
It has double meaning. One one hand, that expecting nothing prevents disappointment because there are no expectations to be met.
On the other hand, a sort of tongue in cheek comment that if you expect nothing, you are blessed in getting your expectation met — you get nothing just like you expected.
I choose the former interpretation.
I have my cake and eat it too, SD. Since I expect nothing from the church (or God) if I do get something it’s a total bonus, tender mercy or whatever. Yay me!
:thumbup: If I don’t get anything, I got exactly what I expected. Yay me!:thumbup: DarkJedi wrote:
I have my cake and eat it too, SD. Since I expect nothing from the church (or God) if I do get something it’s a total bonus, tender mercy or whatever. Yay me! If I don’t get anything, I got exactly what I expected. Yay me!
Since my faith transition and my loss of belief that the LDS requirements are necessarily required to get me into heaven, I have had to adjust my expectations and my boundaries. A good portion of my former contributions were motivated by my belief that God would bless my family now and welcome us into glory as a reward. When that belief changed then my former contribution level became unsustainable. I had to reduce my contributions of time and resources to the point where I felt that there was a relative balance between what I am investing into the church and the good that I derive from the church for my family. IOW, I personally do have some expectations of the church in the form of community and support. These expectations are consistent with what I have historically experienced from the church organization.40 billion sitting in the stock market is not going to convert people. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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